Need review about Poco brand

@Tejas01 You'll definitely notice the haptic feedback but tbh I have switched it off because of personal preference. I had forgotten about the weight which initially was one of my first complaints against - but I guess I've become used to it. The weight distribution is pretty even and I didn't get any hand fatigue which I initially feared would happen. But its damn slippery for sure and the weight is bound to increase if you add a cover/case.

My experience with Xiaomi phones are limited to Mi A1,A2 which were stock android and tinkering with a friends Redmi Note and POCO F1. I didn't like the resource heavy nature and all the embedded tracking inside MIUI and have always preferred as close to stock android experience I can get.

But my experience with M2 Pro has made me revaluate MIUI. I would classify my use case as light to medium. I don't really play any games so I guess I haven't pushed the device much. I use it mainly for regular, video and conference calls (atleast 3-4 hours a day), taking scans of documents (the default camera has a document option) and some light telegram/whatsapp (atmost an hour) and couple of hours worth OTT streaming apps. So far, I haven't experienced any lagging or freezing. The background apps are cached properly without getting killed off and is ready for me waiting where I have left it off. This is important as I sometimes need to switch back and forth various apps. I guess MIUI has gotten better at RAM management.

@venkatachar

Try wiping the phone by booting into recovery, vol up + power.

Is this phone bootloader unlocked? You can also try Mi flash.

Guide: [UnBrick] Flashing Latest Stable ROM using Fastboot Mode

Link to rom: POCO F1 – Xiaomi MIUI Official ROM Download get the fastboot one.

Other than that no you'd have to give up to the service guys, only they have the authorised account to access edl mode on locked bootloaders.

@nathan_ad Can you comment on how is the strength of the haptic motor especially when you set "vibrate on calls." I mostly keep my phone on silent mode with vibration on and due to poor motor feedback end up missing calls on my earlier phone. Nokia 7+ was an exception, it had great feedback.
Can you feel the vibration when phone is kept in pocket?
Sorry for pestering with lot of questions...

@Tejas01 Np, glad to be part of the community. I haven't used Nokia 7+ so can't really compare with it. But its miles ahead of of the piss poor haptic motor in Mi A2. I think this has one of the best haptic motors among Xiaomi phones definitely better than the earlier generation Redmi Notes and Mi phones. I don't think you'll have any issues with missing calls. The force is strong with this one 😛

venkatachar said:

I have poco f1 and 2 weeks back I received an update to miui 12. Post update, the phone is struck in boot loop and it won't turn on. A perfectly working phone now useless
Do you have any pointers or good source on how to resolve this or flash the ROM?

Click to expand...

I have the same case scenario with MI 4i which used to be a great phone at one time. The phone's update set the phone into a bootloop . Slowly due to being kept switched off, the battery's condition deteriorated and now is good for nothing but a paperweight. It does not have a single scratch on it yet

I have tried flashing it with multiple stock ROMS ...no luck
The motherboard was perfectly fine and MI service center tells the same thing
I stopped buying Mi phones after that

Not to divert the topic...but are there are any good VFM smartphones which are free of all bloatware and has decent hardware ? (Qualcomm chipset) (Not xiaomi and Oppo subsidiaries) I dont like Samsung smartphones

@shashankb almost similar case here. here 2 mi phones died of board failure ateleast they say so. 1st one is Redmi note 4 within 2 months its display had complaint and had to change it , now after 2 years the phone died due to board failure. The other one, mi a1 wont boot up ever and stuck in boot loop on one fine morning , and the service center guys are rude they say its mainly due to board failure So thats my experience with mi

Support for a phone matters when you are thinking about long term usage although its a budget phone , Xiaomi has outsourced the support to local mobile vendors or else they have support for other mobile companies mixed .These people do not care about the phones which are in warranty also. So expect zero support for your Xiaomi product

Xiaomi was bit better off in managing these until they got into a race of releasing a phone every month
I would suggest OP to avoid Xiaomi and its subsidaries

Defective rate is higher in MI atleast in India.
But fans won't understand unless they taste it.
My last phone was Redmi 5 brought for mom with network issues but Mi never admitted to issue an update. Nevere after that.
Happens when you can buy paid reviews from technical fuduji n gogeee type.

So I was going through Twitter and YouTube yesterday and have seen many people complain about charging-discharging issues, phones going to bootloop post miui12 update, camera disconnection while taking a video etc. And members here have also shared their experiences which suggests that Miui/Xiaomi has become good but not better to address people's concerns.
Giving quality products at affordable pricing is good but equally important is to have after sales support.
It would purely be seen as a luck if you can get a phone without issues.
Also came to know from Telegram that M series Poco to have One android system update and 3 Miui update..🙁
These are some points going against Xiaomi phones..

@Tejas01 better avoid xiaomi, they have become worst over the years be it software support or hardware quality

So I finally got Poco X3... My initial impressions since yesterday
1. Phone is a bit on the heavier side, no uncomfortable though as made out in the Youtube. Or maybe I was sought of accustomed to Realme XT's weight which had a glass back and I put up a glass case enough to train my hand for the weight.
2. MIUI has come a long way and it is very snappy. 120Hz is equally fluid but as @manu1991 pointed out, don't feel much of difference due to optimisation and being polished. So keep it at 60Hz. Still it's just one day so will keep on digging to see if any noticeable gains. Battery does deplete quicker on 120hz.
3. I think Poco made a good decision of going with plastic back instead of glass as with x2. It would have easily crossed 240-250gms with glass and made it difficult to use it one hand.
4. The most surprising part.... I am getting Carrier Aggregation on Airtel at my location. It's not stable as the signal switches between 4g and 4g+. But can't comment on the speeds as they are pathetic even on CA. But a definite improvement over Realme.
5. I setup my phone with India as region but later on changed it to UK. So those notifications from system apps are no more.
6. Debloating the phone makes it more snappy. MIUI somehow went with the most bloated GAPPS and dumped it here.
If anyone wants any further info, do let me know.

It can help you in removing some bloat . Donno if it will work with Pocophone in specific

Source

Yup, went through it. But found it a bit cumbersome so i went for the one by Technolobe as it was GUI based.
Removed most of google bloat as well as some data mining apps. Disabled Mi cloud and Mi wallpaper carousal(couldn't remove it).
Now phone is smooth.
Thanks for sharing.

I have the UK version which has NFC but a 5000 mAH battery. Here they removed NFC and added a 6000 mAH battery. It's already so heavy with 5000 mAH, can't imagine it with 6000. My wife uses a Pixel 3a and it's so light in comparison

I am using this case, it protects the camera as well

Yeah, I think they wanted to make some changes so that X3 and NFC version look different.
Yup, it's a bit on the heavier side but not unmanageable. The weight distribution could have been better given Samsung already has phones with 7000mah battery but just weight more than 200 gms.
I am sure the case you mentioned will further increase the weight to near 240gms.
Looking for a smoke case.